


Luminous

by mayachain



Series: 14Valentines_2019 [10]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Community: 14valentines, Episode Related, Friendship, Meditation, in want of a nail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 18:57:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17730761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/mayachain
Summary: In the aftermath of tragedy, an unlikely friendship was formed and the Light Side prevailed.





	Luminous

**Author's Note:**

> I tried this from Luminara's POV and failed. I'm sorry.

In the aftermath of the temple bombing, despite all the odds Anakin and Luminara Unduli became genuine friends. Initially he wanted to rage at her – did rage about her failings as a master to the Chancellor – but she, who had always reminded him about the importance of letting padawans go when the time came… was just _so_ devastated after her own model apprentice had turned betrayer (murderer), _and_ she was letting him see (feel) this devastation… No matter how devastated and betrayed Anakin felt himself, he didn’t have the heart to hold Bariss’ actions against her.

Instead, he let her cry on his shoulder the one time she could not manage to simply give her emotions to the Force. In trying to help her regain equilibrium he himself reached a kind of peace he never managed in face of Obi-Wan’s expectations.

This meant he had someone to turn to about his fears: Someone that Palpatine didn’t know about.

Anakin usually told Palpatine about everything. All things Luminara, however… all things Luminara were covered by Luminara’s right to privacy – as his friend – therefore, the last thing Palpatine knew about her and Anakin’s relationship was Anakin’s irate ranting.

Luminara learned about Anakin’s and Padmé’s marriage and _accepted_ it because, well, her own adherence to the Code certainly hadn‘t helped her padawan. She learned about Padmé’s pregnancy - “Oh, Skywalker,” she sighed, and offered to perform an examination, easing some of Anakin‘s fears.

“As you say, Master,” Anakin agreed when Master Windu pulled him off a task he’d been on for some time because it had become a Council matter. In another life, Anakin would have raged about it, the lack of regard and trust it implied, but Anakin was sensing Luminara in the Room of a Thousand Fountains trying and failing to meditate. Master Windu could have the clustercriff if it meant Anakin could go to his friend.

They meditated. They found peace. Whenever they were in the same vicinity – and Palpatine kept nudging the Council to pair them because ~~“they work well together”~~ he believed Anakin would be aggrieved by it – they took some time between campaigns to cultivate their friendship.

Inevitably Obi-Wan found them, drawn to their room by an unexpected sense of peace. This happened soon after one of too many incidents where tensions between them had ratcheted up and despite his every effort and things were still so _fraught_.

Anakin opened one eye, ready to defend himself and Luminara - who was closer to Obi-Wan’s age than his own, they’d grow up together, hadn‘t they?- but Obi-Wan smiled and sat down close to them, joining in. There was peace… and maybe forgiveness.

“Meditating with your friends is something you learn in the creche,” Obi-Wan told Anakin afterward. It was an experience Anakin had never had until now, never having made a true Jedi friend before. Obi-Wan had tried, but – as he explained by reminding Anakin of his precious time with Ahsoka – no matter how close their relationship had gotten, it could never have been the same kind of friendship because of their statuses as master and apprentice.

(Luminara was a Master, but it wasn‘t the same, especially since in her own eyes if not the Council‘s, she was a Master who had failed.)

Anakin was bolstered amid heartache, devastation and war. Here was one relationship he‘d formed that was actually Jedi sanctioned! It wasn‘t his marriage, no, but it was something.

(It saved the galaxy.)

 

.


End file.
